Many publishers of content on the Internet tend to be dependent upon advertising for revenue. For example, various types of websites, blogs, social networks, and web-based service sites use advertising as a significant source of income to offset the costs associated with offering content and/or services to their users. When a user requests a specific web page, a corresponding web server—either alone or in conjunction with other servers—may identify advertisements (or other content) to be displayed as part of the web page. For example, a server may attach instructions for a client computer to request an appropriate advertisement from an ad server. Additionally, or alternatively, instructions may be provided to insert an image or other content associated with the ad into the web page.
News websites are one type of website that rely on advertisements for generating revenue. Such sites may provide various pieces of electronic content for users, including articles, editorials, and/or videos, for example. The content may be independently generated by staff writers and/or compiled from other sources. On news websites and other content-rich sites, care is often taken to deliver relevant advertisements to users who are reading or viewing the content on the website. Additionally, with the variety of advertisements used on the Internet, it is important to determine the most profitable types of advertisements to present to users that visit the website, and to quickly and reliably determine the content that will be the most attractive to such users.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for improved systems and methods for analyzing and optimizing online advertisements and content for a website. Moreover, there is a need for improved systems and methods for selecting combinations of advertisements and content based on numerous criteria to maximize, for example, ad revenue or unique user visits to a website. There is also a need for such systems and methods that can address the needs or goals of ad promotions and/or budget constraints.